Well I decided to get an old car out of storage last week. It is a 1978 Lincoln Continental that my parents bought new when I was 13. It was the first car I drove after getting my license which was at age 14 back then. I drove myself to the orthodontist in it. Anyway I really liked the car so I determined I would not let it get away. My parents drove it for seven years then my sister bought it and drove it for another seven years, then I bought it. In the twenty years I have owned it it has only been driven a few hundred miles and was last out of storage ten years ago. It has 109,000 miles on it. It has always been garaged.
I was thinking that it would be hard to get back into service having sat that long. You know bad gas dead battery leaking brake cylinders etc. Well it turns out all I had to do was put some air in the tires (which are 24 years old now and make me nervous) and put a new battery in it and start it. I cleaned it and everything works fine and it drives the same as ever. Of course it should have all the fluids changed and new hoses, belts and tires, but such as it is it is fine for driving around the block. I sat in it today and listened to the demonstrator Quadrasonic eight track tape that originally came with the car. I have the original paperwork as well. It listed for $15,053. Boy have times changed.
I am a long time member of the Veteran Motor Car Club of America. I intend to use it in VMCCA driving events.
By the way the car in the background is a 1939 Buick Special Business Coupe that I bought twenty six years ago.
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Thread: Old Cars.
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12-06-2012, 07:00 PM #1
- Join Date: Mar 2007
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Old Cars.
"Quidvis recte factum quamvis humile praeclarum - Whatsoever is rightly done, however humble, is noble." Sir Henry Royce
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12-06-2012, 07:07 PM #2
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12-06-2012, 07:15 PM #3
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nice car. very pricy for back in the day. as for things to do. anything rubber that has checks and cracks in the engine. fuel filter and plug wires cap & rotor. one thing people don't consider is fuel pump. its just a rubber diaphragm and they rot out. also the fuel lines and rubber brake lines rot if its sat a long time.
another thing to do is remove the battery cables on each end and clean. the engine side corrodes and can take years off the car by becoming a problem without you knowing it. make sure all the engine grounds to fenders and chassis are intact. have funYetti
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12-06-2012, 07:16 PM #4
- Join Date: Mar 2007
- Location: Idaho, United States
- Age: 59
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Yes, it's just like driving it thirty five years ago. It even smells the same. In reality as you could have imagined it isn't that great of a car to drive when compared to todays cars. They don't build them like they used to and thank goodness. I prefer to drive this other '78 from the opposite end of the car spectrum. My Corvette that I bought when I was 18 and in high school.
"Quidvis recte factum quamvis humile praeclarum - Whatsoever is rightly done, however humble, is noble." Sir Henry Royce
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12-06-2012, 07:17 PM #5
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12-06-2012, 07:20 PM #6
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12-06-2012, 07:22 PM #7
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12-06-2012, 09:30 PM #8
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12-07-2012, 02:47 AM #9
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12-07-2012, 05:11 AM #10
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12-07-2012, 05:16 AM #11
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12-07-2012, 05:24 AM #12
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12-07-2012, 05:33 AM #13
- Join Date: Oct 2012
- Location: Jupiter, Florida, United States
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You lucky dog. First car I got to use regularly starting my junior year of HS was my mom's 1970 Thunderbird Landau, two door with the pointy nose. Had a 429/4bbl, bucket seats, sequential rear taillights and wrap-around rear seat. Less than 2000 made and though not terribly fast off the line it was lightening fast once you had it rolling about 40mph then stomp on it. It would kick down into passing gear and the 4bbl at the same time, kind of pause a beat like it was gathering itself up and then you were outta there just like the Millennium Falcon jumping into hyperspace. From behind she kinda looked like the MF too as she pulled away. I'd jet past my buds in their Mustangs, Novas and Camaros who could get the jump on me but seldom beat me any distance. Had a lot, a LOT, of good times in that beauty.
After I moved away I had hoped to retrieve it somehow but not long after my younger sister wrecked it while fiddling with the radio and turning a corner. She was fine, car was totaled.
The sky blue pic is exactly the same color, wheel covers, everything as ours:
Enjoy the ride!It's 80% diet, 20% workout and 100% in the mind.
If you can read or carry on a conversation, you ain't working out.
To be different the only thing you have to do is stand fast when the herd moves.
Parking your s**t on a bench ain't the same thing as using it!
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12-07-2012, 05:40 AM #14
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12-07-2012, 05:57 AM #15
- Join Date: Oct 2012
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Yeah, we were a Thunderbird family. My Grandmother had a '56 with removable hardtop, my dad had a '67 4dr Landau, two '70s (the Landau and a four-door) and a '73 which didn't count because it was almost identical to a Continental and had their pig of a 460" motor. Besides the '70 which I got to drive, my fav was the '67 Four door with suicide rear doors, vacuum actuated headlight "eyelids", sequential taillights, steering wheel would automatically tilt up and hard right when you opened the door and best of all, the mighty 428cu "Cobrajet" under the hood. It was one beautiful car in its day. The rust colored pic is identical to ours.
It's 80% diet, 20% workout and 100% in the mind.
If you can read or carry on a conversation, you ain't working out.
To be different the only thing you have to do is stand fast when the herd moves.
Parking your s**t on a bench ain't the same thing as using it!
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12-07-2012, 08:37 AM #16
It's not the most desirable car for many people but that car is in EXCELLENT condition!! I would assume that if it really did SIT for a long time and was never started the seals in the engine and tranny probably dried out. It will be a matter of time before it starts leaking BAD.
Seals would be a minor fix though compared to the rest of that car, nice, clean, og ride you got there.
But what I'm really saying, is how much for that coupe back there
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12-07-2012, 08:40 AM #17
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12-07-2012, 09:23 AM #18
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12-07-2012, 11:20 AM #19
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12-07-2012, 02:46 PM #20
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12-07-2012, 04:57 PM #21
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12-07-2012, 05:27 PM #22
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12-07-2012, 05:29 PM #23
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12-07-2012, 05:41 PM #24
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12-07-2012, 06:21 PM #25
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12-07-2012, 06:31 PM #26
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12-07-2012, 06:40 PM #27
- Join Date: Feb 2010
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12-07-2012, 06:48 PM #28
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12-07-2012, 06:54 PM #29
Yeah, I barely remember a time when I couldn't drive. As soon as I was old enough to reach the brake I was driving around the farm and not long after that on the roads. The local cops didn't care if we were licensed so long as we stayed on the backroads.
2 + 2 = 5 (for extremely large values of 2)
Try SCE to AUX
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12-07-2012, 09:17 PM #30
- Join Date: Mar 2007
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